HHS girls tennis celebrates fourth straight team title

Two van rides home, one celebrating a glorious present and another looking at a marvelous future.

That's what it was like last Saturday late afternoon as the Homestead and Nicolet girls tennis teams made their way home, after the Highlanders finished a complete and coveted four-peat of WIAA state team championships, with a 5-2 victory over the young but game Knights.

"There were tears in our eyes on the way back from Madison," said John Peck, father of Homestead senior doubles' player Carly Peck.

Tears, because Peck and teammate Aly Coran have been the backbones of all four of these titles accomplished in four quick years and now they're done. They were the first players allowed to lay hands on the gold state trophy at the awards ceremony at the Nielsen Center following last Saturday's championship match.

"Aly and Carly really enjoyed the weekend," said Highlander coach Jackie Egelhoff. "Especially Aly (the 2008 and 2009 state singles champion). She was talking to the team (afterward) and she was so gracious telling them how special all this was."

"They were all so happy."

"This has been all so amazing," said Coran, "this run all those four years. I started out on top (in singles) and then a little competition came in (these last two years), but winning team state all four years, is something Carly and I will have forever. The two singles championships I will remember, but these (the team titles) are really what's special."

Knight coach Tim Koppa knows that. Teams that he led won three straight titles from 1998-2000, but last Saturday's little adventure, made with a team that was so young (four freshmen and two sophomores) that it didn't even know that it wasn't supposed to even make the final, much less throw a scare into the battle-tested Highlanders, was Nicolet's first trip back to the finals since that point.

"It was a good two days," he said, "and the really good thing about it, is our age. Especially the freshmen. They'll start thinking that this is what is supposed to be happening every year. That's cool."

It used to happen all the time in Nicolet; the Knights have a girls-tennis best 17 state team titles to their credit.

The young Knights grew up with the 4-3 semifinal triumph over DSHA as sophomore top singles player Emily Mone had to go out there with the match on the line with a 3-3 score only to pull out an impressive 6-3, 6-1 victory over a girl to whom she had lost before.

"To do that in front of everybody was just incredible," said Koppa. "She (Mone) gave no sense at all that she was going down."

But then again, neither were the Highlanders. Expectations were high. They were scarcely touched all year. There was a 4-3 match win with DSHA earlier in the season, but that was with an altered line-up and without sophomore Mardee Merar, who was still weeks away from making her debut in singles while recovering from a shoulder issue.

Once she did come back, she gave the Highlanders, as Koppa noted, "three untouchables" (Coran, herself and state singles champion Elizabeth Konon).

"They just have a lot of bullets in their gun," said Koppa. "Before Merar came back, there was at least an outside chance for maybe us or DSHA (to beat Homestead), but once she got back (in the third singles slot), it became an awfully high hill to climb."

That's true especially with another almost automatic win at first doubles with Peck and her junior partner Sophia Lococo. The pair, which won the state doubles title the week before, finished their season an impressive 40-0 with three wins last weekend. They are 79-1 over the last two seasons combined and did not drop a set this season.

"Just amazing, to do something like that is just amazing," said Egelhoff.

And yet, with all this talent at her disposal, Egelhoff thought it was her coachly duty to remain nervous, to keep everyone aware that another team title was not going to be a given.

"I guess I thought it was my job," said Egelhoff, who has been coaching for over 40 years. "The real challenge (if you could call it that) this year, was with all those outstanding records that we had to keep everyone focused and hungry."

The Highlanders displayed that early on, routing Green Bay Southwest (6-1) and Eau Claire Memorial (6-1) to get to the final. Meanwhile, the Knights were a bit tested, fighting through the tough singles' players of Middleton for a 5-2 decision and then claiming that emotional 4-3 win over DSHA.

"Everyone knows that there's no love lost between the two of us," said Koppa of the rivalry that's built up between the two teams over the years. "…That was a very satisfying win, something these girls will carry with them for the rest of their lives."

That made the effort in the final against Homestead all the more impressive.

Despite the emotion of the DSHA match, the Knights showed no sign of letdown against the Highlanders. The all-freshmen second doubles team of Erin Wathen and Michelle Margolies beat the all-senior Highlander pair of Michelle Levin and Claire Songkakul, 6-1, 6-1, for their first victory over the pair in five tries this season.

And Knight senior Claire Maxon and junior Mercedes Halaska defeated Highlander seniors Kacie Kelly and Carlie Swenson, 6-4, 7-6.

So when Highlander fourth singles player Alex Talyansky had to work hard to beat Knight freshman Josie Docalavich (7-5, 6-4), Egelhoff was understandably nervous.

But as noted, the four other Highlander entries proved "untouchable".

"Their (the Knights) effort, especially coming off that big win, was amazing,' said Coran, who easily won all three of her matches over the weekend. "They were just so tough at every position. It was the closest match that we had since Mardee came back."

"I didn't know if they could bring it again (against us)," said Egelhoff, "but it was such a good match. We were actually thrilled that it was Nicolet (in the final). The girls all know each other and are friends."

It is a match Koppa is already looking forward to.

"This just showed them that with a lot of hard work, things will work out," he said of this team. "It was well worth it and will serve us well next year."

But for now, the Highlanders will continue to celebrate. They have already had their awards night where the team gave Egelhoff a large plastic flying "H", the emblem of the school, as their gift to her.

It will go into the team's clubhouse, even if it takes up half the wall.

"They really wanted it there," Egelhoff said laughing. "It's very big."